Recycling and reusing garment hangers

ABSTRACT

A method and system for re-using and recycling garment hangers which is applicable to localized or world wide geographic areas and which (a) eliminates sorting at the collecting point for used hangers, usually a retail store, (b) handles re-usable, recyclable and scrap hangers without restriction on mix components of a given batch, (c) renovates and returns the re-used hangers and recycled hanger material to points of need, and (d) can be physically located at a location dictated solely by convenience considerations without mandatory reliance on the physical proximity of hanger manufacturing facilities. The recycled hanger material may be sorted into a first part suitable for recycling and a second part suitable for scrap by manual and/or non-manual means.

This patent application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/472,912 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,280 which wasfiled on Jun. 7, 1995.

This invention relates to garment hangers and specifically to a methodand system for recycling and reusing garment hangers. The method andsystem are applicable to garment hangers, hereafter "hangers", made fromdifferent materials, but since the great bulk of hangers made in theworld today are composed of plastic the invention will be illustratedand described in conjunction with the processing of plastic hangers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

All, or nearly all, of the garments--pants, shirts, skirts, blouses,suits, dresses, intimate apparel, etc.--manufactured in the manycountries of the world which have clothing manufacturing capability areput on hangers for presentation to the ultimate consumer in a retailoutlet. By far the most common commercial practice is to place garmentson hangers at the location at which the garment is manufactured, thoughin a few instances a garment may be assembled to a hanger at the retaillocation just prior to presentation of the garment to the ultimateconsumer for sale. However, whether the hanger utilization initiallyoccurs at the plant of the garment manufacturer or at the retaillocation, business and environmental concerns pertaining to the handlingof hangers have arisen.

A major concern pertaining to the handling of hangers is the costincident thereto. In the typical situation a hanger, usually made ofplastic, is manufactured by the hanger manufacturer and shipped to thegarment manufacturer. The garment manufacturer places the newly madegarments on hangers and then ships the garments on hangers to either adistribution location or, more usually, directly to a retail outletwhere the garment is displayed for sale to the ultimate purchaser, aconsumer. Some garments, such as men's and women's suits, may be takenhome by the consumer after purchase at the retail store on the hanger onwhich it was displayed for purchase. However the large majority ofhangers are removed from the garment by a retail store clerk at the cashregister or check out station, the hanger then being discarded into abin. At the end of a day, or at least periodically, the bin is emptiedinto a trash container at the retail store. The discarded hangers, whichmay be of many different shapes and sizes and produced by differenthanger manufacturers, are then disposed of as by burning, burying in alandfill, etc. Since the cost to the garment manufacturer of a typicalplastic hanger may be, for example, about 15¢ at the present time, itcan be seen that a substantial economic cost is involved in thepresentation of garments on hangers by the retail outlet. In addition,the retail outlet is required to dispose of the discarded hangers whichentails a further cost to the retail merchant.

It is important to note that the great majority of hangers that are thusdisposed of are perfectly operable and quite capable of one or morere-uses. The material from which the hanger is made, usually plastic,and the construction of the hanger, are such that the hangers aredesigned to withstand severe stresses during use. The very greatmajority of hangers are thus destroyed though they are perfectly capableof further use as a garment hanger.

From the above description it will also be seen that the current systemof handling hangers is wasteful of natural resources and labor. Plasticsare, for the most part, petroleum based and, in view of the currentsystem of destruction of plastic hangers after one use in the commerciallife of the hanger, fresh plastic from virgin petroleum base stock mustbe provided. As can be appreciated, the manufacture of 10 hangers by thehanger manufacturer is far more labor intensive, and hence expensive,than using a single hanger ten times, assuming an economically viablesystem is available to collect, sort, renovate as needed, and ship priorused hangers. There are also less obvious, but real, societal andenvironmental costs in the current hanger handling system including thedeposition of literally tons of hangers, which are not space efficient,in landfills, and the fuel cost inherent in reducing hangers to a basestate as by burning or compressing.

It is possible of course for the retail merchant to sort hangersperiodically which have been collected in boxes and ship them to thehanger manufacturer or the garment manufacturer. However retail storelabor is usually not available to do the added sorting task, the garmentmanufacturer and hanger manufacturer are not set up to receive andfurther process the returned hangers. The sorting difficulties at theretail store level are particularly formidable and include separation oflook-alike hangers into groupings intended for the originalmanufacturer, and the problem of disposal of that group of hangers,usually composed of a relatively lower cost material, which are notsuitable for recycling. The last mentioned hangers are of coursesuitable for regrinding, but since neither the garment manufacturer northe hanger manufacturer is, at the present time, equipped to handle suchhangers economically, the retail store merchant is still presented witha disposal problem as above described.

Although the economic inefficiency inherent in the present system ofhandling garment hangers has been recognized there is today no knownsystem for recycling and reusing garment hangers which (a) does notrequire sorting at the point of termination of hanger commercial use(i.e.: at the cash register at the retail store), (b) accepts usablehangers and hangers which have no further commercial use potential andthus must be disposed of or reground, and (c) efficiently returnreusable hangers to garment manufacturers, including shipment fromshipping origins which are more strategically located, and hence lesscostly in operation, than shipments which originate from the virginmanufacturing locations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is a method and system for recycling and reusing garmenthangers which is local or world wide in scope, eliminates sorting at theused hanger generating locations, (i.e.: generally, retail stores),handles both reusable hangers and regrind only hangers withoutrestriction on mix components thereof, efficiently renovates and returnsreusable hangers to their points of further use or processing, and doesall of the above on a basis which is economically viable for the hangermanufacturer, the garment manufacturer and the retail outlets.

In the presently preferred embodiment a hanger re-use center isestablished at a location which is convenient, primarily, for shipmentof pre-used hangers thereto, and, secondarily, for shipment of renovatedhangers therefrom to hanger re-use locations, said reuse centerconcentrating in one location the sorting, renovating, regrinding, andshipment functions of all hangers from all originating manufacturers ofthe prior used hangers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in theaccompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the garment hanger recycling system ofthis invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating the processing of garment hangers atthe re-use center of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating an alternative embodiment of theprocessing of garment hangers at the re-use center of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A presently preferred embodiment of the method and system for recyclingand reusing garment hangers of this invention is indicated generally at10 in FIG. 1. The method and system, hereafter, the "system" forconvenience, is illustrated in the form it would take in a typicalmulti-country hanger manufacturing and distribution system. The systemincludes (a) a United States garment hanger originating manufacturer,(b) one or more, here a plurality, of hanger originating manufacturerslicensed by the U.S. hanger manufacturer to sell to U.S. garmentmanufacturers, but located in other countries, (c) garment manufacturerslocated in the U.S. and elsewhere, (d) a similar pattern of hanger andgarment manufacturers not related to the U.S. hanger manufacturer, (e) aplurality of U.S. retail outlets which generate used hangers, and (f) ahanger re-use and redistribution center. For purposes of clarity andunderstanding of the overall concept, the flow path of only reusablehangers has been shown, the final stages of regrind hangers and thereground material, as well as scrap material, being shown in FIG. 2.

A hanger manufacturer located in the United States is indicated at 11 inFIG. 1. The handling concept associated with the manufacture, use andsubsequent re-use of hangers manufactured by said U.S. hangermanufacturer will be described initially to illustrate the basicconcept.

Hangers manufactured by U.S. manufacturer 11 move to two destinations.

A first batch of hangers, indicated at 12, is shipped to a U.S. garmentmanufacturer, indicated at 13. Garments manufactured by manufacturer 13are placed on hangers 12 at the U.S. garment manufacturing plant 13. Thegarments on hangers, now denominated by the reference numeral 14, areshipped to U.S. retailers indicated at 15.

A few U.S. retailers, and, in general, the larger retailers, orderhangers directly from a hanger manufacturer, usually in the same countryin which the retail outlets are located. To accommodate this businessmethod, a second batch of hangers manufactured by the U.S. hangermanufacturer 11 may be shipped directly to the larger retailers, asindicated at 16, thereby by-passing the U.S. garment manufacturer. Theretailer 15 then assumes the responsibility for putting the garments onthe hanger, following which the garments on hangers are presented to theconsumers at the retail outlets.

In similar fashion, re-use hangers which have been processed at there-use center 18 may be shipped, as indicated at 21, directly to theretailer 15 when the retailer, as mentioned above, assumes theresponsibility for placing the garments on the hangers.

Upon sale of the garment at a retail outlet, the hangers are thenseparated from the garments at the retailers at the time the retailpurchasers; i.e.: ordinary consumers, buy the garment at the retailoutlet. The now bare, but once used, hangers are collected at the retailoutlet in a container which may contain different sizes and models ofhangers, and, very likely, hangers from other hanger manufacturers inaddition to U.S. hanger manufacturer 11. Some of the original batch 12of hangers together with hangers of different sizes and models from,most likely, both hanger manufacturer 11 and other hanger manufacturers,are then shipped in an unsorted grouping, as indicated at 17, to ahanger re-use center 18. After sorting, inspection (to remove broken orotherwise unreusable or ineligible hangers), renovation (as needed) andpackaging into containers of similar hangers, said containers areshipped as at 20 to the U.S. garment manufacturer 13 where the hangersre-enter the garment shipping, sale, collection and re-use process asindicated at 13 and 14.

Several companies in the hanger manufacturing business today haveaffiliations with hanger manufacturers which may be located in countriesoutside the U.S., said affiliations being any one or more of license,wholly-owned or joint venture arrangements with said non-U.S. companies.It is common practice for example for a hanger manufacturing plant to belocated in a country where substantial garment manufacture takes place;indeed, hanger plants are frequently located in close proximity togarment manufacturing plants. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, twolicensees of the U.S. hanger manufacturer, a Hong Kong hangermanufacturer 23 and a Korean hanger manufacturer 24, manufacture hangers25 and 26, and ship them to Hong Kong/PRC garment manufacturers 27 andKorean garment manufacturer 28 respectively. The garments on hangers arethen shipped, as indicated at 29, 30, respectively, to U.S. retailers 15where they are processed as above described in conjunction with virginhangers which originated at U.S. hanger manufacturer 11.

The method and system is not confined to hangers manufactured by, orunder the control of, a primary hanger manufacturer, such as U.S. hangermanufacturer 11. Rather, the method and system is flexible enough toaccommodate hangers manufactured by non-related hanger manufacturers inboth the U.S. and other countries.

Referring again to FIG. 1, other hanger manufacturers, located in theU.S. and/or other countries, are indicated at 32. Said non-relatedhanger manufacturers ship their hangers 33 to garment manufacturerplants located in any country of the world, including the U.S., asindicated at 34. Said worldwide garment manufacturers may have norelation to garment manufacturers 27 and 28, or they may be identicalwith garment manufacturers 27 and/or 28, or they may be a combination ofone or more garment manufacturers 27 and 28 and other, non-relatedgarment manufacturers. For ease of understanding of the invention FIG. 1appears visually to indicate that garment manufacturers 34 are separateand distinct from garment manufacturers 27 and 28, but it must beunderstood that garment manufacturers 34 are intended to be generic inmeaning. The garments which have now been assembled to hangers at plants34 are then shipped, as indicated at 35, to U.S. retailer 15 where, likegarments on hangers from U.S. garment manufacturer 13, they are thenhandled in the same fashion as above described.

It will be understood that should the large U.S. retailers wish toobtain hangers only from hanger manufacturing plants other than thoseassociated with U.S. hanger manufacturer 11, such hangers could beshipped only from non-related hanger manufacturers 32 directly toretailer 15.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that once (a) a virginhanger leaves a U.S. hanger manufacturer heading for either a U.S.garment manufacturer or a U.S. retailer, or (b) garments on hangersleave a garment manufacturing plant, said hangers, in effect, enter thehanger re-use program indicated by the dotted line 37.

From a careful study of the foregoing method and system it will beappreciated that variations within the scope of the invention may beutilized if conditions, and particularly cost and delivery reliability,permit.

The hanger re-use center 17 of FIG. 1 is illustrated in greater detailin FIG. 2 where it is characterized as a hanger re-use plant. In thefollowing description of the method and system details as disclosed inFIG. 2 it will be assumed that the hangers entering the hanger re-useplant are of different sizes and shapes, and also, of different qualityin that some are capable of re-use after sorting, inspection andrenovating and others, of the single use variety, are not suitable forre-use and hence must be reground or scraped and disposed of as unusablematerial.

Hangers 17 from retailers 15 enter the hanger re-use plant 18 at entrypoint 40 and move to a collecting area 41 which holds incoming stockfrom many retail stores. It will be appreciated that the hangers 17, intheir entry condition, are most likely unsorted in the sense thathangers from different hanger manufacturers and, further, hangers ofdifferent sizes, composition and quality may be mixed together in anincoming container. This results of course from the fact that the clerksin the retail stores merely toss all sizes, shapes and makes of hangersinto a common container following purchase of a garment by the retailcustomer. The most common hanger materials are, today, polystyrene,polypropylene and crystal styrene.

The hangers 17 are first subjected to a sorting and checking operationat sorting and checking station 42. At station 42 workers 43 sorthangers 17 into those hangers which must be scrapped and those hangerswhich may be re-used. The hangers to be scrapped are placed on scrapconveyor 44, and those hangers which are suitable for re-use are placedon re-use conveyor 45.

The to-be-scrapped hangers are conveyed to a scrap sorting station 46where one or more sorters 47 put regrind polystyrene hangers into apolystyrene bin 48, regrind polypropylene and crystal styrene regrindhangers in polypropylene and cry bin 49, and scrap hangers into scrapbin 50. The polystyrene, polypropylene and cry hangers are placed onregrind conveyer 51 which carries the hangers to regrind station 52. Thescrap hangers are discharged from the reprocessing system as by depositinto a disposal bin 53.

Upon reaching the regrind station 52 the polystyrene, polypropylene andcry hangers are directed to separate grinders 54, 55, 56 where, aftergrinding to a desired particle size, the three types of material aredirected to a hanger manufacturing plant 11 for re-manufacture intohangers.

As mentioned, those hangers at the sorting and checking station 42 whichpass inspection and are deemed suitable for re-use are placed on re-useconveyor 45. Following placement on the re-use conveyor 45, the sortingand checking station workers 61 inspect the hangers to determine if anindividual hanger is (a) in a clean and saleable condition or (b)requires renovation. If a worker 61, following inspection, determinesthat a hanger requires renovation to bring it up to sale condition, suchrenovation, including cleaning, is performed by worker 61. Obviouslyother processing is included within the concept of renovation, includingtightening of loose components, removal of size indicating parts, and,possibly, even replacement of broken or missing parts. Should a worker61 determine that a specific hanger is too deteriorated to be quicklyrenovated, the worker will merely place the deteriorated hanger on thescrap conveyor 44 where it will be processed as above described.

Although only one conveyor is indicated in FIG. 2, optionally aplurality of conveyors may be provided, one for each hangermanufacturer. Obviously one conveyor would be dedicated to hangersmanufactured by USA hanger manufacturer 11, and the other or otherswould be provided for other hanger manufacturers 32, see FIG. 1.

In the continuing description of the invention it will be assumedhowever that hangers of all shapes, makes and sizes are intermingled onconveyor 45.

The now renovated hangers which exit conveyor 45 at its discharge end 62are deposited on the loading end 63 of a sorting and packaging conveyorindicated generally at 64. After placement on conveyor 64, sortersseparate the renovated hangers. For example, sorter 65 may pick out allhangers of U.S.A. hanger manufacturer 11 moving along the outside half66 of conveyor 64 and place such hangers on the inside half 66 ofconveyor 64. Sorter 68 may pick out all hangers manufactured bynon-related hanger manufacturers 32 and place them on the inside half 67of conveyor 64. By the same token, sorter 69 may pick out hangersmanufactured by non-related hanger manufacturers 32, etc.

Packers 70 and 71 pack like hangers into boxes 72 at packing station73-78. Thus packer 70 may pack all 10" and 12" men's suit hangers intoboxes 3 & 4 at packaging station 73, one size to each box, while emptyboxes 1 and 2 await movement into a hanger packing position. When boxes3 and 4 are full the platform in the packaging 73 station on which boxes1, 2, 3 and 4 are placed is rotated 180° so that filled boxes 3 and 4are moved from the loading position shown in FIG. 2 up to the take-awayposition occupied by boxes 1 and 2 in FIG. 2. Rotation of the platformwill of course bring empty boxes 1 and 2 into a loading position, andthe packer 70 then commences to fill boxes 1 and 2.

It will be understood that if more 10" and 12" men's suit hangers reachstation 73 than workers 70 can pack given the speed of the conveyor, thecapacity of the boxes and the down time of the packaging station whilefilled boxes are rotated to a take away position and empty boxes arebrought to a filling position, a down line packer at a down linepackaging station may also pack 10" and 12" men's suit hangers. Ifhowever packer 71 is able to pack all 10" and 12" men's suit hangers ofhanger manufacturer 11 at station 73, then a down line packer 71 willpack only ladies suits and dresses hangers at station 74, and so onthrough station 78.

The hangers, after packaging in boxes 1-24 of packaging stations 73-78are then moved to the Finished Goods for Resale area 80. As orders arereceived for shipment, the renovated re-use hangers move to a USAgarment manufacturer 13 as shown at 18, or, alternatively, directly to aretailer 15 as shown at 21, (see FIG. 1).

It will be noted that hanger re-use center 17 may be located at the mostconvenient and economical location; i.e., it need not be located at aspecific location mandated by a single factor, such as the location of ahanger manufacturer. If, for example, a large quantity of used hangersare generated in a well defined geographic area, such as theNortheastern seaboard from, for example, Washington D.C. to Boston,Mass., it may be most convenient, all factors considered, includingfreight and labor rates, to locate the hanger re-use plant nearPhiladelphia, even though the USA garment manufacturer 13 and hangermanufacturer 11 may be located near Chicago. If on the other hand asufficient quantity of used hangers are only generated over a largegeographic area, such as the Midwest, it may be most convenient tolocate the hanger re-use plant 18 next door to a USA garmentmanufacturer 13 so that those hangers required by garment manufacturer13 can be moved from a shipping dock 81, see FIG. 2, at hanger re-useplant 18 by an endless overhead conveyor directly to the garment-hangerattachment station in the garment plant of the garment manufacturer 13.

Referring now to the alternative embodiment of the re-use center of FIG.1 as illustrated in FIG. 3, it will be noted that mechanical or, moreaccurately, automated sorting means 83 have been incorporated into thesystem in partial or full replacement of the sorters 47 shown in FIG. 2.Specifically, in this instance, an infrared sorting device has beenlocated at the discharge end of the scrap conveyor, the devicefunctioning to distinguish between polystyrene on the one hand andpolypropylene and/or crystal styrene on the other hand, and, aftersensing the presence of one or the other, automatically operating todivert each sensed material into the appropriate bin 48 or 49 or evenadditional bins if the device is calibrated to distinguish betweenpolypropylene and crystal styrene. Once a used hanger reaches bin 48 or49 it is processed as described above.

It will be understood that, at the present time, while the sortingdevice 83 can distinguish between the type of material presented to it,such devices cannot make judgment decisions as to those hangers suitablefor re-use, i.e.; mainly regrinding, and those hangers which, due tosome economically unrehabilitatable condition cannot be re-used and mustbe isolated and removed from the system. The operators of the systemthus have the option of (a) lumping all hangers which are not clearlysortable into bins 48 and 49 into an "all other" category which areautomatically diverted to scrap bin 50, or, (b) using human personnel tomake the judgment decision. If some human personnel is used, which ispreferable because even a polystyrene hanger, for example may not besuitable for re-guiding for one reason or another, only a singleoperator is generally required as contrasted to a plurality of sortersas indicated in FIG. 2.

From the foregoing it will be seen that a method and system forrecycling and re-using garment hangers has been disclosed which is localor worldwide in application, eliminates sorting and disposal of hangersat retail outlets, renovates and re-uses those hangers which arere-usable in either their originally manufactured or reground form andaccomplishes said objectives in a manner which is economically viablefor the hanger manufacturer, the garment manufacturer and the retailoutlet merchants.

Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustratedand described it will at once be apparent to those skilled in the artthat modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of theinvention. Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of the inventionbe limited not by the scope of the foregoing exemplary description, butsolely by the scope of the hereafter appended claims when interpreted inlight of the relevant prior art.

I claim:
 1. In a method of re-using and recycling garment hangers, thesteps of:collecting a batch of garment hangers at a collecting location;transferring said collected batch of garment hangers to a hanger re-useand recycling facility; sorting said collected batch of garment hangersinto a first portion potentially suitable for re-use and a secondportion; renovating said first portion; transferring said renovatedfirst portion to a re-use location; conditioning at least a first partof said second portion for recycling; transferring said conditionedfirst part of said second portion to a recycling location; isolating asecond part of said second portion; and scrapping said second part ofsaid second portion, wherein said second portion is manually sorted intoa first part suitable for recycling and a second part intended forscrap.
 2. The method of claim 1 further characterized in thattheconditioning of said first part of said second portion consists ofchanging the physical state thereof to a form suitable forre-manufacture into a finished product.
 3. The method of claim 2 furthercharacterized in thatthe step of conditioning the first part of saidsecond portion includes grinding.
 4. In a method of re-using andrecycling garment hangers, the steps of:collecting a batch of garmenthangers at a collecting location; transferring said collected batch ofgarment hangers to a hanger re-use and recycling facility; sorting saidcollected batch of garment hangers into a first portion potentiallysuitable for re-use and a second portion; renovating said first portion;transferring said renovated first portion to a re-use location;conditioning at least a first part of said second portion for recycling;transferring said conditioned first part of said second portion to arecycling location; isolating a second part of said second portion; andscrapping said second part of said second portion, wherein said secondportion is non-manually sorted into a first part suitable for recyclingand a second part intended for scrap.
 5. The method of claim 4 whereinsaid second portion is sorted into a first part suitable for recyclingand a second part intended for scrap by an infrared sorting device. 6.The method of claim 5 further characterized in thatthe step ofconditioning the first part of said second portion includes grinding. 7.The method of claim 4 further characterized in thatthe conditioning ofsaid first part of said second portion consists of changing the physicalstate thereof to a form suitable for re-manufacture into a finishedproduct.
 8. In a method of re-using and recycling garment hangers, thesteps of:collecting a batch of garment hangers at a collecting location;transferring said collected batch of garment hangers to a hanger re-useand recycling facility; sorting said collected batch of garment hangersinto a first portion potentially suitable for re-use and a secondportion; renovating said first portion; transferring said renovatedfirst portion to a re-use location; conditioning at least a first partof said second portion for recycling; transferring said conditionedfirst part of said second portion to a recycling location; isolating asecond part of said second portion; and scrapping said second part ofsaid second portion, wherein said second portion is sorted into a firstpart suitable for recycling and a second part intended for scrap bymanual and non-manual means.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein saidnon-manual means is an infrared sorting device.
 10. The method of claim8 further characterized in thatthe conditioning of said first part ofsaid second portion consists of changing the physical state thereof to aform suitable for re-manufacture into a finished product.
 11. The methodof claim 10 further characterized in thatthe step of conditioning thefirst part of said second portion includes grinding.
 12. A system forre-using and recycling garment hangers, said system including:means forcollecting a batch of used garment hangers at a collecting location;means for transferring said collected batch to a hanger re-use andrecycling facility; means, at the facility, for sorting said collectedbatch into a first portion potentially suitable for re-use and a secondportion; means for renovating said first portion at the re-use andrecycling facility; means for transferring said renovated first portionto a re-use location; manual means for sorting said second portion intoa first part and a second part; means for conditioning said first partof said second portion for recycling; means for transferring saidconditioned first part of said second portion to a recycling location;and means for scrapping said second part of said second portion.
 13. Thegarment hanger re-use and recycling system of claim 12 furthercharacterized in thatsaid means for conditioning the first part of saidsecond portion for recycling includes means for changing the physicalstate of said first part of said second portion to a form suitable forre-manufacture into a finished product.
 14. The garment hanger re-useand recycling system of claim 13 further characterized in thatthe meansfor conditioning said first part of said second portion are grindingmeans.
 15. A system for re-using and recycling garment hangers, saidsystem including:means for collecting a batch of used garment hangers ata collecting location; means for transferring said collected batch to ahanger re-use and recycling facility; means, at the facility, forsorting said collected batch into a first portion potentially suitablefor re-use and a second portion; means for renovating said first portionat the re-use and recycling facility; means for transferring saidrenovated first portion to a re-use location; non-manual means forsorting said second portion into a first part and a second part; meansfor conditioning said first part of said second portion for recycling;means for transferring said conditioned first part of said secondportion to a recycling location; and means for scrapping said secondpart of said second portion.
 16. The garment hanger re-use and recyclingsystem of claim 15 wherein said non-manual means is an infrared sortingdevice.
 17. The garment hanger re-use and recycling system of claim 15further characterized in thatsaid means for conditioning the first partof said second portion for recycling includes means for changing thephysical state of said first part of said second portion to a formsuitable for re-manufacture into a finished product.
 18. The garmenthanger re-use and recycling system of claim 17 further characterized inthatthe means for conditioning said first part of said second portionare grinding means.
 19. A system for re-using and recycling garmenthangers, said system including:means for collecting a batch of usedgarment hangers at a collecting location; means for transferring saidcollected batch to a hanger re-use and recycling facility; means, at thefacility, for sorting said collected batch into a first portionpotentially suitable for re-use and a second portion; means forrenovating said first portion at the re-use and recycling facility;means for transferring said renovated first portion to a re-uselocation; manual and non-manual means for sorting said second portioninto a first part and a second part; means for conditioning said firstpart of said second portion for recycling; means for transferring saidconditioned first part of said second portion to a recycling location;and means for scrapping said second part of said second portion.
 20. Thegarment hanger re-use and recycling system of claim 19 wherein saidnon-manual means is an infrared sorting device.
 21. The garment hangerre-use and recycling system of claim 19 further characterized inthatsaid means for conditioning the first part of said second portionfor recycling includes means for changing the physical state of saidfirst part of said second portion to a form suitable for re-manufactureinto a finished product.
 22. The garment hanger re-use and recyclingsystem of claim 21 further characterized in thatthe means forconditioning said first part of said second portion are grinding means.